The Federal Government has directed hospitals across the country to provide isolation beds, strengthen infection prevention measures and ensure health workers are adequately prepared to manage suspected Ebola cases.
The government also warned that 15 states had yet to update their Ebola preparedness and response plans, urging them to accelerate efforts to strengthen their capacity to contain a possible spread of the disease.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, where he outlined measures being taken to contain the outbreak following the confirmation of an imported Ebola case in the Federal Capital Territory.
Pate said the government was working with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organisation and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to coordinate the national response.
He explained that hospitals had been instructed to make adequate provisions for isolating suspected patients while ensuring that frontline health workers were protected against infection.
“We have notified all our hospitals to make room for bed capacity, isolation, and prepare their health workers in terms of infection prevention in these cases, because health workers are on the front lines,” Pate said.
He added that the Federal Government had notified authorities in the FCT and would continue engaging state governments to ensure that healthcare facilities under their control were ready to respond to additional cases.
The minister said the immediate priority was to prevent the infection from spreading beyond the index patient and developing into community transmission.
“We don’t want it to go beyond it, and there is no need to panic, but we have to be vigilant,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria had activated its incident management system, with the NCDC coordinating operational activities alongside FCT authorities and other relevant agencies.
Pate noted that the response included contact tracing, surveillance, laboratory testing, the provision of essential medical supplies and the preparation of healthcare facilities to detect and manage suspected infections.
He stressed that prompt identification and reporting of cases, adequate isolation facilities and strict adherence to infection prevention and control procedures were essential to limiting transmission in hospitals and communities.
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The minister said most states had developed Ebola response plans with guidance from the NCDC, although some were yet to complete or update their preparations.
“Most of the states have already response plans, which were developed with the guidance of the NCDC. Those that have not finished their response plans, we’ve asked them to quickly finish their response plans,” he said.
He disclosed that the government would meet state commissioners of health on Friday and invite commissioners of information to improve coordination between public health measures and public communication.
Pate also called on private healthcare providers to strengthen disease surveillance, promptly notify public health authorities of suspected cases and avoid managing possible Ebola infections without involving the relevant agencies.
He said the private sector was particularly important to the response because the infected woman had visited a private hospital before her infection was confirmed.
“The private sector is important because, as you saw, this case went to a private facility. In 2014, it was a private facility,” he said.
The minister urged healthcare practitioners to remain alert to symptoms that could indicate Ebola, especially among patients with relevant travel histories or possible exposure to the virus.
He disclosed that additional funding had been made available to the NCDC, while the WHO and Africa CDC were providing support for the country’s response.
The government had also invited Prof. Christian Happi, a genomics expert at Redeemer’s University, Ede, to support the NCDC’s investigations into the virus.
Pate said genomic sequencing would be conducted to improve understanding of the virus and provide scientific evidence to guide containment efforts.
The outbreak has been linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries in the region. The strain differs from the Zaire ebolavirus responsible for the 2014–2016 West African outbreak.
Pate advised Nigerians experiencing symptoms such as fever, headaches and muscle aches, particularly those with relevant travel histories or possible exposure, to isolate themselves and contact public health authorities promptly.